North Korea's tone toward South Korea is getting increasingly belligerent

North
Korean leader Kim Jong Un inspects a flight drill of fighter
pilots from the Korean People's Army's (KPA) Air and Anti-Air
Force, in this undated photo released by North Korea's Korean
Central News Agency (KCNA) in Pyongyang on February 21,
2016.Reuters

SEOUL (Reuters) - North and South Korea, locked for weeks in
exchanges of angry rhetoric and heightened military readiness,
traded more threats on Friday, with Pyongyang saying its military
had trained to attack Seoul's presidential Blue House.

Isolated North Korea is renowned for its saber-rattling, and
often makes threats of attack and even annihilation against South
Korea and the United States.

However, its tone has been especially belligerent in recent weeks
and personally aimed at South Korean President Park Geun-hye
following her warnings of regime collapse in Pyongyang after it
conducted a nuclear test and rocket launch earlier this year.

North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un guided what state media said on
Friday was the North's largest ever exercise of long-range
artillery training, with a simulated attack on South Korea's
presidential and government offices.

Kim ordered his military to be on high alert "so that it may
mercilessly pound the reactionary ruling machines in Seoul, the
cesspool of evils, and advance to accomplish the historic cause
of national reunification, once it receives an order for attack,"
the official KCNA news agency said.

Tensions have been high on the Korean peninsula since the North
conducted a nuclear test in January and a long-range rocket
launch in February, which prompted new sanctions earlier this
month by the United Nations Security Council. Annual U.S.-South
Korea military exercises, which are ongoing, have added to the
jitters.

The tensions also come ahead of a rare congress of the North's
ruling Workers' Party in May. Some analysts expects Kim to claim
a signature achievement, such as another nuclear test, in the
run-up to the congress as he looks to bolster his stature at
home.

Park warned the North to end provocative actions and "escape from
the illusion" that it will benefit from nuclear armament,
ordering her country's military to maintain "maximum combat
power."

"Reckless provocation will be the road to destruction for the
North's regime," Park said at an anniversary event for the 2010
sinking of a naval ship that killed 46 people. The South blames
the sinking on a torpedo attack by the North, which denies any
role.

The North conducted its fourth nuclear test in January, saying
that it had successfully tested a hydrogen bomb although many
experts doubt the claim.

But some U.S. intelligence analysts now believe the North
"probably" possesses a miniaturized nuclear warhead, CNN reported
on Friday, citing several unnamed U.S. officials, although the
assessment is not the consensus view of the U.S. government.

But even those officials say they still do not know if such a
device would actually work, CNN said.

Rocket experts have said the North has yet to demonstrate it can
launch a ballistic missile mounted with a nuclear warhead that
can sustain the stress of atmospheric re-entry and then be guided
to hit a target with reliability.